Thursday 29 April 2010

Guerilla marketing

Example of guerrilla marketing, promoting Battlefield Bad company 2 in Brussels.


Super Mario Galaxy Marketing

Nintendo used the success of the Wii to promote the game; Super Mario Galaxy.

Marketing for Mario Kart Wii

Aside from advertising in the United States, another region important to sales of Mario Kart Wii is Japan, Nintendo's native country. As such, the gaming giant has enlisted the aid of Japanese celebrities to help hock their wares onto the gaming populace. Above, you can see model Aki Hoshino and comedian Medaka Ikeno having the time of their life with their Wii Wheels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM7F_9fim84
UK trailer using the same technique of marketing involving celebrities to promote the game.
Analysis of trailer:
By having Celebrities play the game it catches the eye of the viewers and as the general public looks up to celebrities as role models this makes them think for example "if .... has it then it must be good!'
It is also a good advert because you can see people playing the game with the wheel so the audience can see the new equipment and how much fun the people are having when playing the game. In the advert you can not only see the people playing the game but you are able to see small clips of the game so it gives the audience a small idea of what its going to be like without giving too much away and keeping the mystery.
The advert indicates that there is no specific target audience as there is a big age range of people playing the game in the advert. This opens out the game to a wider audience and therefore makes more money.

Wii Sports resort - General information on the game



Backgorund information


Wii Sports Resort is a collection of sports games for the Nintendo Wii game console, and is a sequel to Wii sports.

Marketing - Super Smash Bros. Brawl

http://www.smashbros.com/en_uk/index.html
Kept getting updated every week or so with new music, characters or game modes being shown.
One of the original teaser trailers showing Sonic as a confirmed character for the first time. Due to this being the frst time Sonic and Mario, two of the biggest gaming figures met in one game.
This was obviously big news and increased the hype for the already popular series.

Marketing Research for your Case Study

Research the way in which your game was marketed:
Write a summary of how your game was marketed, include an analysis of a trailer for your game.
Write about the viral marketing techniques used for your game
Write about the guerilla marketing techniques used to promote your game
Include links to the specialist press coverage of your game.
Include links to coverage of your game in the mainstream press.

relating marketing techniques to Alice in Wonderland Nintendo ds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLSqYAh-5xk

Through the trailer, you can see that the product is aimed for children and people who have watched the newly released film. It begins with a clip from the film, making the audience fully aware of the link the game has to the film. Because it is a newly released film, people will recognise this clip therefore interested in the product. It then transforms into a cartoon world, again appealing to the younger audience with its simple animation. The soundtrack to it is full of mystery and wonderment. Viewing the console as it is playing, makes it look more simple and basic to play, also making the audience fully aware of the console on which to play the game.

The game has been marketed through trailers on websites

write up of gaming sesh

Table Tennis - Xbox 360
1) The controls were simple due to most buttons making you hit the ball, with either spins, curls, low and high.
2) This game would appeal to families who enjoy more casual gaming to hardcore gaming, or people who are really big fans of the sport, but have no room for a tennis table.
3) The experience of the game isn't wide enough or fun enough to make me want to go back and play more.
4) There are ads on billboards on the side of the arena, a bit like you would get in a real sport event, also the characters are real people who are famous in the sport.

Red Dead Revolver - Xbox
1) The game was very easy to play, although the shooting was somewhat inaccurate. However the game had a good mix of platformer and shooter.
2) Due to the rating of the game and its violent nature, the game is aimed at adults, particuly those who enjoy watching western movies, due to the references throughout the game.
3) The levels were rather mundane and repetitive-walking down the same train for two levels got boring.
4) The game takes inspiration from early western films.


Midnight Club LA - Playstation 3
1) The speed and the amount of damage you can do to your car is over the top and over dramatic, however this is the kind of racing games that I find fun, track racing is dull, but mind blowing speed and over the top tricks are exciting.
2) This game is aimed more at people who like fast cars, but prefer messing about in their own sandbox world.
3) There were a lot of choices of car (Although we had no money to buy any), so you will go back to unlock more faster models later on.
4) The music playing out of the car radio is from real bands.

Grand Theft Auto Vice City - Playstation 2
1)Although their is a main story in GTA games, they never seem to draw me in, all i ever did and still do on GTA is open up the cheatbook and spawn as many vehicles and weapons i can untill the game becomes fun. However i like the freedom to do this and the world that is built for you to explore.
2) This game is aimed at adults, and adult gaming. However many younger children play this game and enjoy it much more just because of the amount of freedom and variety they get with it.
3) As i said in 1 only fun for me when using cheats.
4) The radio has real songs from bands of the 80's, and the adverts inbetween the songs mock real adverts to give the player a laugh.

Bully - Playstation 2

1) Very much like GTA but with a younger protagonist, and a very slightly more innocent story, as there are no guns or stealing vehicles this time, however beating the crap out of the nearest passer by is still perfectly acceptable.
2) This game is aimed for fans of the GTA series, and people who are too young to go oout and buy GTA but want the same experience, also for people who really don't like their school, playing it means you can pretend to get revenge on your own school. Just without the possibility of getting expelled.
3) The minigames, like button pressing sequences are a good way of adding variety into the game.
4) Billboards and radios simmilar to the way in GTA.

RESEARCH

Wii fit marketing.

The wii fit used the TV to market their product. They produced adverts with celebrities..


This is an example of aspirational marketing by using well know celebrities as an example to be followed.

marketing stuff

Marketing is the process by which companies determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It is an integrated process through which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return.

viral marketing refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses.

Guerrilla Marketing - create a unique, engaging and thought-provoking concept to generate buzz, and consequently turn viral.

Specialist press
Specialist press is a term used for different companies who focus on certain 'specialist' areas of the market.

Mass media press
Mass media is a section of media designed to reach a large audience. The term was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. However, some forms of mass media such as books and manuscripts had already been in use for centuries.

Definitions of marketing and press terms

Marketing
Marketing is the process in which companies determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development.

Viral marketing
Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses.

Guerilla marketing
The concept of guerrilla marketing was invented as an unconventional system of promotions that relies on time, energy and imagination rather than a big marketing budget.

Specialist press
Specialist press is a term used for different companies who focus on certain 'specialist' areas of the market.

Mass media press
Mass media is a section of media designed to reach a large audience. The term was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. However, some forms of mass media such as books and manuscripts had already been in use for centuries.

Marketing definition


What a company does to boosts its sales of its products and services. Ways in which it may boost its sales could be; advertising (general media exposure, using slogans, packaging design, celebrity endorsements). The aim of marketing is to attract the product/services target audience.
There are 4P's of marketing;
1) Product
2) Price
3) Promotion
4) Place

Viral Marketing

Viral Marketing is when there are adverts on the internet making a product desirable to a person. Viral marketing also consists of videos on the internet that promote a product. Viral marketing is also very cheap. It can also be heard by word of mouth and can spread around a lot of people.

Guerilla marketing

An unconventional way of marketing, it is also cheap. Instead of investing money, the marketers invest time and knowledge. The adverts are thought provoking. Normally, the campaigns are unexpected, unconventional and interactive. Normally seen in unexpected places.

Specialist Press


Press with specializes in a certain media; e.g. Videogames.

Marketing

Marketing - Is the way that companies get their products out to consumers by the use of advertising etc.

Viral Marketing - This is marketing by using social networking sites, or sites like youtube to market your product, so for example making a trailer for a game and posting it on youtube.

Guerilla Marketing - Harassing and/or sabotaging other markets to get people to buy their products instead of their competitors.

Specialist Press -

Main Stream Press -

deffinitions

Definitions of marketing
Marketing- the exchange of goods for an agreed sum of money.
Marketing is the process associated with promoting for sale goods or services.
The promotion, distribution and selling of a product or service.

Viral Marketing
A technique aiming at reproducing "word of mouth", usually on the internet or by e-mail, for humorous, political or marketing purposes.
A marketing strategy that encourages the audience to pass on the marketing material themselves. Examples include short films and clips sent by email.
Advertising that propagates itself by web visitors use of a web site's feature or service.

Guerilla Marketing
Unconventional marketing strategies intended to generate maximum results from minimal resources.

Specialist press
Specialist Press is all about strategic guerilla print publishing. Specialist Press is the only publishing house where the reader is the brand.

Mainstream Press

Marketing and Press terms

Marketing is the process by which companies determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development.

Viral Marketing refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes.

Guerrilla Marketing was invented as an unconventional system of promotion that relies on time, energy and imagination rather ten a big marketing budget.

Specialist Press is a term used for different company's who focus on certain areas of the marketing market.

Mainstream Press is the opposite the Specialist Press and it means that it is open to a wide range of fields in the market.

Research:Key Terms

Marketing is the process by which companies determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It is an integrated process through which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relations in order to capture value from customers in return.

Viral Marketing is a branch of marketing as a whole. The idea of Viral Marketing is that the product shall be promoted via such media forms as video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages. Mouth to mouth is another form of Viral Marketing.

Guerrilla Marketing is an unconventional system of promotions that relies on time and energy. The idea is to market the product in unexpected ways and places so that the product remains in the forefront of the public's interest.

Mainstream Press, or in other words, mass media is a section of media specifically designed to reach a large audience. In the modern world we see examples of this everywhere in the form of nationwide radio and televison and newspapers.

Specialist Press is the complete opposite for exactly what Mass Media stands for. It is the equivalent to a nationwide news program vs a regional news program. Specialist Press researches into the product and models itself around exactly what would appeal to the audience it was targeting.

Wii Fit Research



Nintendo wii fit is first party game as it was developed and published by Nintendo.

definitions

Marketing

The activities of a company associated with buying and selling a product or service. It includes advertising, selling and delivering products to people. People who work in marketing departments of companies try to get the attention of target audiences by using slogans, packaging design, celebrity endorsements and general media exposure. The four 'Ps' of marketing are product, place, price and promotion.

Viral Marketing:

The use of pre-existing social networks to increase awareness of a sale, this can be done through flash games (as a taster) video clips (on films such as youtube). Often viral marketing is done through the use of a computer virus of which when infected is sent to all recipitants of the person of whom has the virus.

Guerilla Marketing:

A new form of maketing in which the ways they use advertising are unique. A new form of guerilla marketing is the use f blue tooth connections in streets, other forms of this type of markrting include street give aways and approaching th public. Guerilla Marketing relies heavilly on ideas and concepts as opposed to a large budget.

Specialist Press:

Press that is specific to one type of market.

Mainstream Press:

All forms of press that use advertising, including the media and actual pres including newspapers and magazines.

Researching tuff

MARKETING

Marketing is the process and range of activities which are involved in making sure you reach your costumers needs and wants.
  1. Advertising and promotions (focused on the product)
  2. Sales
  3. Public and media relations (focused on the entire organization)
  4. Customer service
  5. Customer satisfaction
VIRAL MARKETING

Viral marketing facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message, it relies on costumers informing friends and family to buy the product or be part of the product they have just brought.

For example Vodaphone and Orange magic numbers family uses this technique, the ploy is that when costumers buy a vodaphone phone, it is cheeper to call other vodaphone numbers. This encourages other people to use vodaphone as well.

GUERILLA MARKETING

Guerilla marketing is unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources.
It is more about matching wits that matching budgets. It can be as different from traditional marketing as guerilla warfare is from traditional warfare.

SPECIALIST PRESS



MAINSTREAM PRESS



Wednesday 28 April 2010

we have chosen brain training for the ds a controversial game combining simple daily brain exercising to help your mind with a game we found this interesting.

Super Mario Galaxy

The developer of the game is Nintendo EAD Tokyo, the publisher is Nintendo, the director of the game is Yoshiaki Koizumi, the producer is Shigero Miyamato, the producer and director are also the designers of the game. The people that composed the music are Mahito Yokota and Koji Kondo. It is the 3rd 3D platformer in the mario series after Super Mario 64 and Super Mario sunshine.
Marketing:
In North America, certain retailers had given out a free limited edition coin for pre-ordering the game.
Trading cards were released in 2008, this created more popularity and awareness of the game.
Super Mario Galaxy had much commercial success. It sold 500,000 copies in its first week.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2010 Wii



Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2010. What was called just the PGA Tour series in 1990, it was then renamed to Tiger Woods PGA Tour in 1999.

Developer: EA Games
Publisher: EA Sports

According to NPD for the month of June, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 for Wii sold 272,400 units in North America, outselling Wii Fit in its debut month. Electronic Arts, Inc. (EA) is an international developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers responsible for its games.

EA Games—Home to the largest number of studio and development teams, this label is responsible for action-adventure, role playing, racing and combat games, marketed under the EA brand. In addition to traditional packaged-goods games, EA Games also develops massively-multiplayer online role-playing games. It owns other companies such as:
-EA Sports
-EA Play
-Maxis
-Bioware
Another subsidiary of EA Sports is EA Sports BIG.

EA Sports is a brand name used by Electronic Arts since 1989 to distribute games based on sports. It is responsible for such game series as BA Live, FIFA, NHL, Madden NFL, and NASCAR. In 2008 EA Sports revenue was $4.02 billion.



Mario Kart Wii

  • Developed by Nintendo Entertainment and Analysis for the Wii console.
  • It is the sixth installment in the Mario Kart series (excluding the two arcade games) and the second Mario Kart title to use the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.
  • The game was released worldwide throughout April 2008, but one year later in South Korea.
  • Every copy of the game is packaged with the Wii Wheel accessory, which is designed to house the Wii Remote to allow more intuitive and conventional steering.
  • Changes from its predecessor, Mario Kart DS, include motorbikes and support for up to twelve racers online and offline.
  • Like other games in the Mario Kart series, it involves various characters from several Mario games racing each other on tracks themed from locations in the Mario series.
  • Support for the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection allows racing against other players from around the world, and online competitions and results are available by installing the Mario Kart Channel to the Wii Menu.
  • Director:Yasuyki Oyagi
  • Producers: Hideki Konnoh, Shigeru Miyamoto
  • Designers: Minoru Narita, Hirotake Ohtsubo, Yoshihisa Miromoto
  • Super Mario Kart was the first in the series went on sale in 1992
  • Previous games have been made not only for the Wii but also for the gameboy advance, Nintendo Game Cube, Nintendo 64, Nintendo DS, Super NES,

Alice in Wonderland Nintendo DS game


This is an example of synergy, The Alice in Wonderland film, released in the Winter of 2010 was a huge hit in countries all over the world, this kind of popularity makes this game a very desirable product. There is also an Alice in Wonderland for Wii, along with the DS version, alongside her endearing friends –Mad Hatter, March Hare, Cheshire Cat and White Rabbit – players aid Alice to defeat the Red Queen and Jabberwocky. It was internationally released on March the 5th 2010.
Game Play in Alice in Wonderland allows players to guide, protect and aid Alice as she journeys through the world of Underland while unraveling the game’s many twisted mysteries. Along the way, players call on a diverse and unique cast of characters such as the Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat who each have their own abilities to help evade traps and solve challenging puzzles. The Mad Hatter can help Alice alter her perception of Underland and take advantage of optical illusions to open up places in the world the player alone would not have noticed. Meanwhile, the Cheshire Cat can use his ability to make himself and objects appear and disappear helping Alice through this strange world. Players must choose wisely when using each of the characters’ powers and combine the abilities to solve more complex puzzles.
It was developed by French studio Etranges Libellules based out of Lyon, France and founded in 1994. They also developed The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon, Arthur and the Invisibles and Asterix & Obelix XXL. With the soundtrack being composed by veteran video game music composer Richard Jacques. It was published by Disney Interactive studios.
Craig Relyea, the Senior Vice President of Global Marketing for Disney Interactive Studios, had this to say: “These games fully capture the magnificent and whimsical world of Underland while experiencing key moments from the film. More than just a retelling of the movie, Alice in Wonderland introduces fans to an entirely new style of innovative gameplay designed to challenge the puzzle solving skills of older players while making the adventures accessible and enjoyable for the younger crowd. Innovative gameplay and distinct artistic styles on each platform gives players a range of unique and engaging experiences.”


Brain Training

Research the way in which your game was marketed:
Write a summary of how your game was marketed, include an analysis of a trailer for your game.
Write about the viral marketing techniques used for your game
Write about the guerilla marketing techniques used to promote your game
Include links to the specialist press coverage of your game.
Include links to coverage of your game in the mainstream press.
  • Our game was marketed on the TV, magazines and broadsheets,
  • The Nintendo DS, marketed their game on the tv by using celebrities which are playing the game and are really enjoying it. They also try to show that the brain training actually trains your brain and makes you think a lot more than you would in any other game. "Enjoyed by 10 million people world wide".


  • In this trailer Julie Waters and Patrick Stewart are playing the game during the advert and showing you how to play and what fun it could be aswell as training your brain by playing maths games.
Nicole Kidman plays the brain training as well but if a different way to Julie Peters s she is attracted a different audience as she is a young attractive celebrity that has time out of her busy schedule to play a brain training game. It also shows the brain score which can attract people to see if they can get a better score than she has got and it's also a chance to see generally what there brain score would be.


Nintendo DS Pokemon Heart Gold



Pokemon Heartgold for the DS

Pokemon HeartGold combines the most popular Pokemon games of all time, Pokemon Gold and Silver from the original Game Boy, with the best bits of the subsequent Pokemon games over the years.

HeartGold and SoulSilver were commercially successful in Japan, selling over 2 million units within the first six weeks of their release. General reception to the game has been highly positive.
International release dates:
Europe: Mar 26, 10
Japan: Sep 11, 09
Australia: Mar 25, 10

This game was developed by Game Freak, and was published by Nintendo, the theme is anime/fantasy. It was released on march the 14th in north america.


HeartGold and SoulSilver were released in 2009, ten years after Gold and Silver were released for the Game Boy. Shigeki Morimoto, the games' director, commented on the development of the remakes: "The first thing that I knew I needed to bear in mind was to respect the feelings of those people who'd played Gold and Silver ten years before. I think that players have very strong memories of the game, so they'd think things like 'Ah, this trainer is still strong' and 'If I do this here, this is going to happen'. I knew I needed to respect these feelings." However, Morimoto also needed to make sure that the games would feel as new games to players who had been introduced to Pokémon in recent years on the Game Boy Advance or the Nintendo DS. An in-gameAuthor surragate of Game Freak's President in Celadon City states that the team strived to make a game that would appeal to players with fond memories without "redoing the same thing". He also states that making the game was a "rewarding challenge". HeartGold and SoulSilver introduced many features that were not included in the original Gold and Silver. Several of these features came from the previously released Nintendo DS Pokémon games, such as Diamond (2006), Pearl (2006), and Platinum (2008).


Marketing pokemon heart gold.




Kavia says: “Our marketing activity will kick off during the two weeks leading up to the launch of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver with online and TV support building pre-launch awareness amongst existing fans.
There will be further TV and online support from launch through to the end of April that will be targeted at lapsed fans and those that have never played Pokémon games before. There is also extensive POS support across both phases of aBoldctivity to ensure that our retail partners have everything that they need to drive awareness of the launch.”


Distribution of product.

Amazon is a online retailer company that dispatches pokemon heart gold.
Game engine- heavily modified pokemon platinum engine. First party game, distributed by Nintendo
Funded by Nintendo
-Game industries.biz
-Game master
-Edge, mag

There is a new download for the game. It is a new route
called winners path.

Super Smash Bros Brawl - Wii

We have decided to do our second case study on Super Smash Bros Brawl.
  • Brawl is the third game of the Smash Bros series, the popular fighting game which involves nintendo characters from different game series all in one game fighting. The game was developed by Nintendo and HAL Laboratory.inc. This was the first Smash Bros game to include characters from other game series as cameo characters like Sonic and Solid Snake.




Mario Kart Wii.

Mario Kart Wii is a racing game developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development and published by Nintendo for the Wii console. It is the sixth installment in the Mario Kart series (excluding the two arcade games) and the second Mario Kart title to use the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection. The game was released worldwide throughout April 2008, but one year later in South Korea. Every copy of the game is packaged with the Wii wheel accessory, which is designed to house the Wii remote to allow more intuitive and conventional steering.

Distributer.
Published and developed by Nintendo for the Wii console, therefore making it a 1st party institution.

The Wii was made along with the nintendo DS to appeal more to a female audience as the typical audience for video games were 'nerds','man baby' and 'lads'.

Technology.

Games developers

Zynga: Create games fr social networking sites such as facebook, and their games include Farmville and Mafia Wars.

Xbox Live Market Place - Braid - Single player or multiplayer high Definition interactive game playing with teh ability to go online and play with other live players.

Capcom - Distributor of electronic games machines. began in Japan in 1979 and is now worldwide.

SDK - The software which gives you the ability to create your own 'apps' on the iphone.

Wideload Games - Develop video games, linked with Disney Interactive Studios created in 2003.

Open Source - (OSS) gives the player the ability to change the game to enhance their gaming experience.

open source, Wideload Games

Open source software:
Is a computer software, it allows users to improve software. Designed for the public access. Standish Groups estimated that Open source software saves consumers $60 billion a year.
Free software movement was launched in 1983. Although names was changed in 1998.
This allows you to alter games with the program allowing freedom with the game.

Wideload Games:
Wideload games develops games. Their games are unique and are not easy to categorize with genre. The company is owned by Disney interactive studios..
They have released games such as; Stubbs the Zombie, Hail to the Chimp, Cyclomite and Texas Cheat'em.

Iphone:

Research into different gaming institutions

Zynga - mostly focus on games within social network sites, games such as zynga poker and farmville which are popular on sites such as facebook.

Capcom - is a Worldwide leading Japanese International developer and publisher of video games based in Osaka, Japan. It was founded in 1979 as Japan Capsule Computers, a company devoted to the manufacturing and distribution of electronic game machines. In 2008, Capcom was one of the fifty largest software companies in the world.

Xbox live marketplace - Braid (game) - Is a single player video game exclusive to xbox live. it is an arcade game that can be bought via the marketplace.

iphone Developer

Research :)

Zynga

Zynga is a casual game developer located in San Francisco, California, United States. The company develops browser-based games that work both stand-alone and as application widgets on social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace.

Capcom

Capcom Co., Ltd is an international developer and publisher of video games headquartered in Osaka, Japan. It was founded in 1979 as Japan Capsule Computers, a company devoted to the manufacturing and distribution of electronic game machines.

X Box Live Marketplace

The Xbox Live Marketplace (XBLM) is a virtual market designed for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console that allows Xbox Live members to download purchased or promotional content. The service offers movie and game trailers, Video Store, game demos, Xbox Live Arcade games, Xbox Live Indie Games (Previously Community Games), Games on Demand (Xbox 360 and Xbox Originals), downloadable content such as map packs, gamer pictures, and Xbox 360 Dashboard themes.

BRAID
Braid is a platform and puzzle video game developed by independent software developer Jonathan Blow. The game was released on August 6, 2008 for the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade service.

Ipod developer Program

Apple offers many resources for developers. All components including hardware, the operating systems, and the developer tools are designed by one company, and they’re all designed to work together seamlessly, this creates an easier, more intuitive experience so developers can focus on making great applications.

SDR

An SDR, meaning a Special Drawing Right is the monetary unit of the reserve assets of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Wideload games

Wideload Games, an American game developer, is located in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 2003 by Alexander Seropian (the co-founder of Bungie and head behind the games Halo: Combat Evolved, Myth, and Marathon) and 6 other former Bungie Studios employees 3 years after Bungie's acquisition by Microsoft Corporation.

Open Source

Open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology. Before the term open source became widely adopted, developers and producers used a variety of phrases to describe the concept; open source gained hold with the rise of the Internet, and the attendant need for massive retooling of the computing source code.

Research

1. ZYNGA
ZYNGA make social games for sites such as Facebook. It was found in january 2007 by Mark Pincus.

2. CAPCOM

Capcom Co., Ltd. is a Worldwide leading Japanese International developer and publisher of video games headquartered in Osaka, Japan. It was founded in 1979 as Japan Capsule Computers, a company devoted to the manufacturing and distribution of electronic game machines. In 2008, Capcom was one of the fifty largest software companies in the world.

iphone developer programme

  • SDK is a software which contains a complete set of development tools for creating applications for the iPad, iPhone & iPod Touch.
  • If you enroll on the site you can gain access to a complete and integrated process for developing iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch applications.
Wideload games
  • Is a website that allows you to read about how the company works, about the studios, the games, their latest projects and their innermost secrets.
  • make new videogames the old fashion way.
Open Source
  • is a development for software to be peer reviewed and to be able to see the transparency of the process that happens.
  • its a non profit organisation that was formed to educate and build bridges among constituencies in the open source community.

Zynga, Capcom, Xbox live market place - (briad)

Zynga:
Zynga create online games that players play for free, eg "farmville"and "mafia wars". They make their money through advertisement. It is a casual game developer based in San Fransico. Their games are usually played on social connection sites such as Facebook.

Capcom:
"Capcom began in Japan in 1979 as a manufacturer and distributor of electronic game machines. In 1983 Capcom Co., Ltd was founded and soon built a reputation for introducing cutting-edge technology and software to the video game market. Now an industry leader in the video game industry for 25 years, Capcom's legacy of historic franchises in home and arcade gaming are testaments to an unparalleled commitment to excellence."
Their most famous games include the street fighter games and resident evil series.

Xbox live market place - (braid):
"It serves as the contemplative companion to the typical Mario adventure while embracing the unbridled fun found in the best platformers."
"According to Blow, Braid was the second-largest selling Xbox Live Arcade title".

Research of companies.

Zynga
- Zynga make applications for other sites like facebook, they made games like Farmville, Mafia Wars, Cafe World.
- Zynga is run by 9 people.
Capcom
- Founded in 1979 in Japan.
- They invented the very popular Resident Evil series.
Xbox LIVE Marketplace. (Braid)
- Braid is a game that manipulates physics, and time. It was popular due to this and game reviewers called inventive and new.
- Xbox live allows you to download games and content to increase this allows gamers to get more from their content.
Iphone Developer Programme
- This allows developers to design their own games for iphone and ipod touch game allowing you to manipulate the touch screen.

Researching tuff



ZYNGA
Is a game developer company located in california.
They have created game to be played online in this example, ZYNGA have created games specifically for facebook. Such as, Cafe world, Farmville, Fishville and Mafiawars.

CAPCOM

Capcom began in Japan in 1979 as a manufacturer and distributor of electronic game machines. In 1983 Capcom Co., Ltd was founded and soon built a reputation for introducing cutting-edge technology and software to the video game market. Now an industry leader in the video game industry for 25 years, Capcom's legacy of historic franchises in home and arcade gaming are testaments to an unparalleled commitment to excellence.
They have created games such as, Dead Rising, Lost Planet, Devil May Cry 4, Resident Evil 5 and Megaman for the Xbox.

XBOX LIVE MARKETPLACE (BRAID)
Is a website where you can buy things for the Xbox online as well as being accessible on your Xbox console. A game you can buy on the marketplace is braid.



IPHONE DEVELOPER PROGRAMME (SDK)


With the iPhone SDK, you can get started developing your application for iPad and iPhone today. Access the iPhone Dev Center for a wealth of resources including videos, sample code, technical documentation, Coding How-To’s, and more.



WIDELOAD GAMES

Wideload develops new video games the old-fashioned way: take a few talented but weird people, lock them in a room with some complex electronics for a few years, and see what happens. The games that emerge from this process are unique beasts - and like the mighty hippopotamus, they are not easily categorized or constrained. Games like Stubbs the Zombie, Hail to the Chimp, Cyclomite and Texas Cheat'em have charmed demanding gamers around the world. Now, after their recent move to Disney Interactive Studios, Wideload is busily staking out a beautiful new patch of the creative jungle.

Monday 26 April 2010

Second Party Games

Second Party Game
A game created exclusively for a specific console through a contract agreement with the console manufacturer. (The console manufacturer may own a percentage of the studio, but not enough to give it a controlling interest.)

Technology used during GTA IV by Rockstar games

Technology.
Game engine- is a software system designed for the creation and development of games.In 2006, Rockstar games developed their first games using R.A.G.E (Rockstar, Advanced, Games, Engine), this was Table Tennis.

Red Dead Revolver Vs Red Dead Redemption

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-exuahRl2g

Taken over by RockStar games from Capcom that dropped the project in 2002.

Vs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqRaLfgeziY&feature=pyv&ad=4903265234&kw=red%20dead%20redemption%20trailer

5 years and 500 people to develop. Used motion capture to create realistic movement from animals as well as humans. Open world and free roaming sand box format. The player can chose how they play the game, good or bad, and will have a different out come as a result.

RAGE - Rockstar Advanced Game Engine

before RAGE, Renderware engine developed titles on PS2, Xbox and PC of early GTA for example,
  • Vice City
  • GTA 3
  • GTA:VC stories
  • GTA: LC Stories
RAGE was built due to the competiotion with EA's Citrion.

rockstar advanced game engine, created by a small team. developed to facilitate the high technological needs of the PC, Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii. Evolved from Angel game engine for use in 6th gen console era.

It was created by the 'rage technology group' with the video game developers : rockstar north, and san deigo. Rockstar integrated a few third party middleware components into rage, such as the Euphoria character animation engine and the open source Bullet physics engine.

Euphoria Games Animation



Euphoria is a game animation engine created by Naturalmotion. Based on a fiull simulation of full 3D characters including body, musles and motor nervous systems. Characters actions and reactions are always different every time even when playing the same scene.
Euphoria runs on the PS3, Xbox 360 and the PC and is compatible with all commercial physics engines

http://www.naturalmotion.com/euphoria.htm

OnLive

  • OnLive is the worlds highest performance Games On Demand service
  • It is going to be released June 17th 2010
  • Partnered with Take Two which is the link between them and Rockstar
Third Party Game
A third party game is a game made by a company independent from the console manufacturer.

Bullet Software & Open Source.


Bullet Software:

http://bulletphysics.org/wordpress/
Multi threaded 3D
COCOTO surprise uses bullet on Wii.
Film 2012 uses bullet software for a lot of the rigid body special effects.
Zero Gear is the first game of 2010 using bullet physics for its physics and ogre 3D for graphics rendering.
Bullet physics library is one of the best physics libraries on market today.
Trials HD Xbox 360 uses bullet physics library to calculate their physics simulation and collision inside the game.

Open source software:
Is a computer software, it allows users to improve software. Designed for the public access. Standish Groups estimated that Open source software saves consumers $60 billion a year.
Free software movement was launched in 1983. Although names was changed in 1998.

Development Team of GTA IV

GTA IV took a development team of 150 people to complete and consisted of everyone from Graphic desingers to Interior artists, in total there was 12 different types of artists to complete the job and this does not include graphic designers. Dan Houser wrote the game and he is also the co-founder of Rockstar Games. It cost $100 million to develop and make which made it the most expensive game to produce since Shenmue was made for the Dreamcast which cost $70 million to produce.

GTA 4 IDEAS




Firstly they started collecting ideas. Locations, technology, gameplay, missions, basically everything and anything we want to include or do. We think about what we are trying to achieve in basic terms, we spend a bit of time sorting and discarding some of the initial ideas.

In terms of the art department, the character artists will start playing about with concepts, trying various main characters in the game, playing about with pushing the style a little, basically experimenting. The vehicle department will begin a first pass of every vehicle, the environment artists will lay out a road network and once we've all driven around on it for a bit will block in each city block roughly so we can start to see the skyline. The intention is that as soon as possible we have a very, very rough version of the game and then we begin to refine it. Like every other aspect of the game the artistic direction grows organically, we try stuff and things that work pull us in their direction and things that don't are changed.


Right at the start the ambient characters are blocked in, there is a first pass that gives us an initial version of them and as the style tightens and the artists become more confident with the tools we go over them again and again and tighten them up, add varieties and consistency. The main characters all wait for the script. We work from some initial biographies while the script is still in its early stages and then again push these further when the script evolves.

he story always comes a little later in the day. At the point when the characters are developed we tend to be working more from feel and a short biography. We know the kind of character the player is supposed to be and we know a little of his background but we still don't know what he is going to do and say. So in that sense we have to work with broad strokes. Niko's face looks like he's had a past, that he has done and seen things most people haven't and that this has affected him. That's a good basis to build on.
We found this on http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=4499
An interview on their first ideas of GTA 4 with Aaron -Art director of GTA


Adobe is to stop making software tools that allow Apple's iPhone and iPad to use its popular Flash technology.

The decision reverses an earlier pledge in which it said it would help get Flash working on the gadgets.

Flash is very widely used on the web and many sites use it to power animations, media players and other multimedia elements.

Despite this, Apple's products do not support Flash and it has made public statements criticising the technology.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8616274.stm

Flash moves on to smart phones

By Jonathan Fildes
Technology reporter, BBC News

Smartphones

One of the most common technologies for watching video on a computer will soon be available for most smartphones.

Flash software is used to deliver around 75% of online video and is the key technology that underpins websites such as YouTube and Google Video.

Until now, many smartphones and netbooks have used a "light" version of the program, because of the limited processing power of the devices.

The new software is intended to work as well on a smartphone as a desktop PC.